July 16, 2018 — DJ Koh hints at gaming features for the S Pen

Alongside the Note 9 this year, we’re expecting Samsung to make some big upgrades to its S Pen companion. Previous rumors have already hinted at the Note 9’s S Pen coming equipped with Bluetooth for the very first time, and now thanks to Ice Universe on Twitter, we have a bit more to go on.

Samsung’s DJ Koh recently attended an event in Wuhan, China, and during it, “he said that Note9 SPen will have many new features, including special features related to the game.”

It’s unclear what all of these features will consist of, but that mention of “the game” suggests we’ll possibly see some sort of gaming focus this time around.

July 11, 2018 — Official render confirms the front of the Note 9’s design

There’s been no shortage of Note 9 renders over the last few weeks, and the latest comes by way of AndroidHeadlines.

The image shown above was obtained by the site and is said to be “an official render of the Galaxy Note 9.”

As we’ve seen from past images, the Note 9 is going to look a lot like the Note 8. There’s a large Infinity Display taking up the majority of the front, with the top area being home to the front-facing camera, iris scanning system, ambient light sensor, etc. Also similar is the power/lock button on the right with the left side being home to a volume rocker and dedicated Bixby button.

June 29, 2018 — Note 9 hands-on hints at 2-day battery life, up to 8GB RAM, and more

Eldar Murtazin has built a name for himself as one of the top dogs in the mobile industry, and after going hands-on with a Note 9 prototype recently, he shared some highlights about what we can expect from the phone.

Murtazin notes that the Note 9 is quite a bit heavier than the Note 8, and while the exact battery capacity isn’t mentioned, he says that he was able to get around 23 to 25 hours of video playback at max brightness before needing to charge up and aroudn 1-2 days of regular use.

RAM and storage will start out at 6GB and 128GB, respectively, but Samsung will also offer 8GB + 256GB and 8GB + 512GB variants. The display is also said to be more visible in direct sunlight and comes with an upgraded Always On Display (though this could be pushed back to the Galaxy S10 if it’s not ready in time).

As for the S Pen, Murtazin reports that it’ll support Bluetooth connectivity, new work modes, and will be able to remotely unlock the Note 9.

That’s a couple weeks earlier than the Note 8 event last year, but a week later than the Note 7 event the year prior. This is right in the time frame where Samsung likes to get its stylus-toting phones out into the world.

June 13, 2018 — A large 4,000 mAh battery might be present

There are a lot of aspects that make the Note series unique, and one of those has long been huge batteries. The Note 7 had the largest to-date in 2016 at 3,500 mAh, but after those started exploding and catching fire, Samsung decided to play it safe in 2017 by kicking things down to 3,300 mAh in the Note 8.

This year, however, Samsung might start going back in the right direction. According to Ice Universe on Twitter who’s been fairly accurate about Samsung rumors in the past, they’re “100% sure” that the Note 9 will come with a 4,000 mAh battery.

June 6, 2018 — This is what the Galaxy Note 9 might look like

We’ve been talking about the Galaxy Note 9 for months at this point, but up until now, we haven’t had a definitive idea as to what the phone will look like. Thankfully, 91Mobiles partnered with @OnLeaks to scratch that itch for us.

As you can see in the video above, the Note 9 will look very similar to last year’s Note 8. The front will be home to a large, notch-free Infinity Display while the back houses two rear cameras and a fingerprint sensor. The way the cameras and fingerprint sensor are positioned is slightly different compared to the Galaxy S9, but even so, there’s no mistaking this for a modern Samsung phone.

The bottom frame also shows a slot for the S Pen, USB-C port for charging the Note 9, a speaker grill, and 3.5mm headphone jack.

June 1, 2018 — The Galaxy Note 9 will be announced on August 9 with an upgraded camera

Per a report from Bloomberg, Samsung will host an Unpacked event in New York on August 9 where it’ll officially unveil the Galaxy Note 9.

There’s still a lot that’s unknown about the phone, but it’s reported that the Note 9 will have a very similar design compared to the Note 8, a much-improved camera, and Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 845 processor in select markets.

Following the event, Samsung hopes to officially release the phone by the end of the month.

March 29, 2018: Samsung may launch the new Note as early as July

Samsung’s Galaxy Note series usually makes its debut in August, but according to a report from The Investor, the Note 9 could launch much sooner.

Samsung typically starts producing its OLED panels for Note devices in June, but it’s said that the company will be moving ahead of schedule this year and start production as soon as April. As such, we could see the Galaxy Note 9 released as early as July.

The reason for this change? Although not confirmed, it’s reported that this is a result of unimpressive sales of the Galaxy S9 and Apple’s own OLED production requirements for two of the iPhones it’s expected to release this September.

March 23, 2018: A new report suggests that the Note 9 will have an in-display fingerprint sensor

As bezels continue to shrink, the mobile industry is being forced to come up with new ways to implement biometric security systems. This means moving fingerprint sensors to the back of phones, and in some cases, replacing them entirely with face-unlock setups.

According to a report from The Korea Herald, Samsung will use the Galaxy Note 9 as its first phone to ship with an in-screen fingerprint sensor. Per a source that spoke with The Herald –

Samsung Display has prepared three or four solutions for Samsung Electronics to embed the fingerprint sensor inside of the main display, and both are seriously considering one of the solutions.

In addition to this, the anonymous source also noted that –

The delay in deciding on the final concept for the Note 9 is due to the work in adopting the in-display fingerprint sensor. A final decision on adoption of the technology will be made by this month.

Previous reports from earlier this month have indicated that Samsung would skip out on an in-display sensor for the Note 9, so it’s hard to say for sure what’ll come of this considering the back-and-forth we’ve heard. The Galaxy Note 9 would be a perfect showcase for this new technology, but if the sensors don’t meet Samsung’s criteria quite yet, we may not see this tech arrive on a Samsung phone until the S10.